Thanks to Don French and
his wife, Anna Carl French for sending this photo of the 1st grade class
at San Miguel Elementary School in 1951-52. Can you help with any names?
Here's the story:

Maybe you can't remember what San Miguel was like in
1951, or maybe you can.
Here are some of the things I've dug up.As with most of the small towns along US 101 between Los Angeles
and San Francisco, there was no freeway bypassing the town, but instead,
to get through town, all cars had to drive down mainstreet.There was no county park and swimming pool on the west side of
town at the base of the hills. Instead, small wooden buildings housed
the elementary school.And
if you lived in San Miguel, you knew the town limits were "from the
Mission to the mill, from the river to the hill."

Camp Roberts wasan active US Army base that helped staff the growing conflict in
Korea,
and many of the soldiers who were stationed permanently on base had kids
who went to school in San Miguel.

Finally, even though I did not meet her until
many years later, I now know what my lovely wife looked
like in the first grade.She can be seen standing in the attached photo.The names are what we remember and what we
collected from other people.The teacher is Lillian Larsen for whom the
current San Miguel school is named.The photo depicts a different time, a time of
innocence and charm where all the boys wore cuffed-up
jeans and all the girls wore dresses.Thank you, Lillian Larsen, for all you did for so
many kids and their kids, and thank you, Anna, for
allowing me to take this peek back in time.

-
Don

Paso's
Pet Lions

In the
1950's there were only four men hired by the state to hunt mountain lion.
Steve Matthes was one of them. In the early 50's he lived just up the
street from the high school football field on 24th Street.

Sandy
Thixton has this great story to tell:

My
family and the Matthes family were best of friends. My family
made

an
agreement with Steve Matthes that if he got any orphaned cubs that my

mother
would raise them. The plan was that as they grew up, my dad and

Steve
would take movies of the cubs with Steve's male lion and then sell

them
to Disney. So the deal was struck.

Lo
and behold, Steve did kill a female lion and did not discover that

she
had cubs until after she was dead. He crawled into a cave and

rescued
the 3 day old cubs--3 of them--and brought them to my mother.

One
of them died right away. My mother proceeded to mother the
other

two--females
that we named Cheetah and Shaw. She had to feed them every

two
hours, 24 hours a day for the first month. They eventually had
the

run
of our house until one day when we came home and discovered they had

had
a great time in our absence unrolling all of toilet paper all over

the
house and climbing up and down the living room draperies. We
moved

them
to the back yard, then. My brother played with them using huge

empty
cardboard boxes. One day one of them learned to climb the fence

and did so to chase a neighbor's house cat through the neighborhood

toward
the river---with my dad in hot pursuit. By this time they were

very
large indeed.

Steve
and my dad had taken movies all along, and I have a copy of those

on
DVD that Bud Journey converted from Super 8 film for me.

Unfortunately,
they are very dark. With movie cameras in those days

when
you ran out of film, you had to be in the dark to take out the used

film
and put in the new roll to keep the film from ruining. So my
dad

took
along a black cloth that he would put over his head and change the

film
when they were out in the "field" filming, Every time
he did this,

Steve's
male lion would go nutso. Luckily my dad never got attacked.

When
they took the movies, none of the mountain lions were contained in

any
way. The filmers just followed along after the lions wherever
they

went. Steve and my dad also got a bright idea that they should
show the

mountain
lions interacting with other animals. So they caught a badger,

and
a rattlesnake, and I don't remember how many other animals that they

let
go near the mountain lions and then filmed the result. The

rattlesnake
that they caught they defanged and put in a sack in the

pickup. Robert
Allison was along for the ride. In the middle of the

drive,
the rattlesnake started to come out of the sack and everyone

jumped
ship. It seems that rattlesnakes have a second set of fangs
that

they
can bring down to use if they lose their first set. Fortunately,

no
one got bitten.

Eventually
it was decided by Steve that the cubs should be sold at the

age
of one year. One was purchased by the author John Steinbeck and

given
to the Queen of England as a mascot for the H.M.S. Puma. This

lion
then was put in the royal zoo, had several cubs there and

eventually
died. The other was bought by a longshoreman from the L.A.

area. He used to drive around with the lion stretched out on
the back

of
his seat. He would take the lion out to "romp" in the wilds and
then

when
she came back, he would take her back home. One day she didn't

come
back. He had to leave to go to work. She roamed into
a barn and a

farmer
shot her.

I
enjoyed the experience of helping to raise the mountain lions

immensely. I
also enjoyed having classmates come over just to see my

mountain
lion cubs. They were never domesticated but always
remained

wild
animals. If you happened to step on one accidentally, their
eyes

would
actually turn red with anger and they were scary. My mom adored

them
anyway and would control them even when they were big by catching

them
by their long tail.

When
I went into high

school
and we had to list what we wanted to be when we graduated, I put

down
that I wanted to be a lady lion hunter. The school didn't know

what
to do about that so they gave me books on forestry. When I told

Steve
that I wanted to be a lady lion hunter, he told me that I wouldn't

stay
much of a lady long if I were a lion hunter. Both of my
children

are
very much outdoors people and interested in animals. My son,
Ty,

works
for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and serves as a

fishing
guide on the Kenai River in Alaska in the summers whenever he

can. My
daughter lives near Boise and raises Andalusian horses as a hobby.

William
Wimmer adds:

Dad & I used to go
out and shoot ground squirrels and bring them back to feed Cleo.
After a while Steve asked us if we would stop doing that. It seems
that Cleo got balled up with the fur, and he had to have a Vet give Cleo
an enema. I could think of no worse profession than being a vet
and having to do that to a mountain lion !!!!!!!!!!!!

Dave
Steaffens tells us:

My
dad knew Steve quite well. I remember going to his house once and
walked in the door, and the lion was laying on the couch like a house cat.

John
Barclay remembers Steve as the man who kept a pet mountain lion named Cleo
at his house:

I
got in a lot of trouble and frequently for being home late to supper,
because I was waiting for Cleo to eat the leghorn chicken walking around
in her cage. She never would get interested in the chicken in front
of me, and there would only be chicken feet left the next day. Steve
Matthes would take her out into natural surrounding and film her; then he
would sell footage to Disney to be edited into those lion movies that were
popular for a while. Steve responded to a ‘Doggone Department’
piece from KPRL where we had contacted when we lost a parakeet. When
I went to retrieve the parakeet from him, he filled me in on the history
of Cleo as well as his Matthes Lion Hound breed that continues today.

Paul Lamas, Cleo and
Gary Smith

Gary Smith
remembers:

Steve
Matthes told John he got the cub and another cub after killing the mother
and backtracking to the den. The other cub went to a zoo. I also
heard Steve would carry the cat around in the back of his truck and
cause quite a reaction when he would stop for gas.

Jack
Guffey chimed in when he remembered his experience with Steve:

Sure
looks like the kitten Steve Matthes brought to the ranch my parents owned
in the Adelaide. We were still commuting from that valley town and we had
my Boy Scout troop over for the weekend, and Steve brought an orphan
kitten for all of us to play with and handle while Steve talked about
being a State lion hunter and showed slides. Had to be 1952 thru maybe
1954.

Apparently,
after leaving Paso Robles, Steve moved to the Northwest looking for more
adventure. Around 1960 he joined Tom Slick's Pacific Northwest Expedition
and started tracking Bigfoot according to the book Sasquatch Legend
Meets Science by Jeff Meldrum - 2007.

There's a
whole chapter devoted to him in the book Extreme Outdoor Adventures-Who
Survives and Why, written by Larry Mueller and Marguerite Reiss. You
can read it here:

Steve
Matthes died
in 1995.

Bill
and Emma Claassen

Jane
Belmont sent the following information about Bill and Emma who owned The
Mercantile department store at the corner of 12th and Pine Street.

According
to old census records, Bill was in the "Merchant, Dry Goods"
business during 1910-1930. Emma's parents were Alexander and Emma Monteith.
Bill and Emma's sons were William, Arthur and Howard.

Jane's mom
worked at the store, and Jane did the same during college breaks. At that
time, Bill's grandson, Jimmy, was in charge.

Jane
wasn't able to find out exactly when the Mercantile was established, and
if anyone has that information please forward it to me.
Thanks.

Unfortunately,
Emma died in a car accident in 1954. Bill passed away in 1964.

This
portrait was taken on Pioneer Day (probably early 50's) of Emma and Bill.
The second picture includes Paul and Grace Reinke sitting in back of the
fringed surrey.

Interesting
asides: The 2009 Pioneer Day Queen, Maggie, was married to Howard Claassen.
And Bill's second wife, Marian Pond Claassen, was also a Pioneer Day
Queen.

Paul
and Grace Reinke

In Paso's
early car sales heyday, a number of notable dealerships spotted the
landscape. In the mid-1930's Paul Reinke started selling Packards, Hudsons,
Studebakers and Willys at 1130 Pine Street. The business lasted until
1960, when the building was sold, and Pioneer Auto Parts put their sign
over the door.

These
memorable photos were submitted by the Reinke's granddaughter, Jane
Belmont, who says her mom "still lives on the 40 acres my
grandfather's father bought and partially planted."

The
following is the caption to a 1950 Paso Robles Daily Press picture of Paul
and Grace at the Pre-Pioneer Day Dance. "Paul and Grace Reinke,
residents of Paso Robles for almost 40 years, stole the show by winning
the best old time costume award at the 1950 pre-Pioneer Day Dance. The
Reinke's, who will soon be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary,
lent their talent to the dance and parade for many years. This year's
pre-Pioneer Day Dance [1951], sponsored by the Do Paso Squares and the
Shandon Square Wheelers, will be held at the Shrine Club Saturday night,
with dancing getting underway at 9 p.m. to the music by Ed Cary and square
dance calling by Jack Osborne."

The Paso
Robles Swim and Tennis Club should be an asset to a growing Paso Robles
and reading about it brought back memories of coming to Paso Robles in
1937 when my parents purchased the Paso Robles Auto Court on Spring
Street between 9th and 10th street and included in
the deal was the old plunge. The builders of the complex were far
sighted and having a big plunge with an auto court was unique in those
days. When we came the plunge was already in a declining state.
The heating system had long died and the filtering system was a relic
even in those days but it served faithfully until the plunge closed. It
was operated as a public swimming pool during the summer months and was
about 100 x 50 feet with two smaller pools at the end.

There was a pool of about equal size on the NW corner of 10th
and Spring Streets that was part of the hotel health center. The
water was from a warm sulfur spring and the bottom may have been
slippery and the smell was always present but it was warm and enclosed.
The plunge was torn down after the fire that destroyed the Paso Robles
Hotel.

During WWII the plunge was
operated by the USO as chemicals were not available to civilians. The
plunge was closed to civilians and I couldn’t even get in.

My folks sold the property in 1946 and the buyer sold the plunge to the
city of Paso Robles who operated it for several years. John McCord built
a pool at Resthaven out Adelaide Road. It was a fun pool that McCord
built free form along an old stream bed. It had slides, floats and lots
of lawn making it a fun place. I remember I was swimming out there
and I was kicked out of the pool for misbehavior of some sort.
When I got home my Mother told me that McCord had called and wanted me
to lifeguard that evening so back I went to Resthaven.

I taught Red Cross Swimming at the Plunge while in college. The
configuration looked great but the depth made it difficult to teach
beginning swimming classes. Before WWII there were several boys who were
excellent swimmers and a couple of divers that might have done something
with their skills except the war interrupted. I played water polo one
year in college but my hands were too small to handle the ball quick and
easy. The coach keep harping that I should come out for swimming
which I finally did when I was a junior and I got my first varsity
letter and repeated the next year. I bring this up as I was one of
the last to be able to come out in college compared to now that you have
to start training very young and do it all year. It takes good
facilities, good coaching, and dedicated training to develop a swimmer
at almost any competitive level. Let’s hope that Paso Robles Swim and
Tennis Club will become a driving force in developing swimmers and
tennis players.

The
Moose on Park Street

From Don French:

DON IN 1961

My aunt,
Flossie Gay, worked at the Park Pharmacy for many, many years. Even though
she only worked behind the counter, she always wore a nurse-like white
smock. The pharmacist was Barry Claybrook, and like many other Paso
businesses of that time, he treated his employees like family. The
pharmacy was on the corner of 12th and Park Street in the 1892 Clock Tower
building that was destroyed in the 2003 earthquake.

Next to
the pharmacy on Park Street was a barber shop where my Mom took me for
haircuts, and on the wall was a huge moose head. The barber always told me
that the moose was just sticking his head through the wall, and his body
was in the Park Pharmacy. Little did he know that my Aunt worked there.

So one day
I asked her and Mr. Claybrook if I could see the moose, and they took me
into the back of the pharmacy.

Of course,
there was no moose!

John B.
Ward Research

I am doing
research on the history of a Methodist mission to Chinese women and
children in San Francisco (1870-1913), where my wife's grandmother was
raised. From 1903-1913, the Superintendent of the "Oriental
Home" as it was called, was one Carrie G. Davis, whose sister, Bella
Davis, was married to John B. Ward. John apparently died before 1910, but
Bella was still living in Paso Robles in 1925, when Carrie Davis died in
San Francisco. I found a photo of John Ward in the following publication:

Click
here:

One
hundred years ago (Nov 5, 1908) Carrie Davis took a group of Chinese
children from this Oriental Home to visit president Theodore Roosevelt in
the White House, where the children sang for him. My wife's grandmother
was one of these children. By March 1909 the children were in Southern
California, where Carrie "broke down," and she spent some time
in Paso Robles recovering--apparently staying with her sister. I do not
know if the Chinese children sang in Paso Robles. John and Bella Ward had
a son Victor who was a veterinarian, and the Canadian family thinks the
Ward family may have been into horse racing.

Since Carrie Davis was not married and had no children, I am wondering if
there are descendants of the Ward family still living in Paso Robles who
might have memorabilia from Carrie Davis. The Ward and Davis families were
from Canada, and were living in California by 1887, so they may have been
part of the original citizens of the town. Carrie Davis kept a marvelous
journal of her 10 years working with rescued prostitutes from SF
Chinatown, and I have many newspaper articles about her work and her story
of escape from the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Please feel free to forward this email to anyone who you think might know
something about the Ward family of Paso Robles. Some of their other
children were: Band(?), Belle Lada(?), Otto, Albert, Victor, and Florence,
all born 1885-1909.

PS. I went to Atascadero high school in 1965-1966. My grandparents lived
in Atascadero 1962-1984. My uncle and aunt lived there for many years
(Layton Tree Service).